"By asking one can find the way to Constantinople." And as it was
not to Constantinople that he wanted to go, but only to the "boya's"
place, to the "room that killed" he went on asking.
At last an old woman directed him.
"Go over those fields there, where the goats are; and behind that
wall you will find a small house with an iron door; that is the place."
Aleko ran across the dreary, stony fields which were neither town
nor country, and climbed over the wall.
A small house stood alone on a bare plot of ground, with two closely
shuttered windows, and an iron door. Aleko tried the door and found
it locked. There was no sign of life anywhere about; the cart had
evidently not arrived yet. He was in time!
As he stood there, on the coarse down-trodden grass, he gave a little
gasp of dismay and felt in his pocket.
The boy had said, "They pay him a drachma for each dog--perhaps if
you were to give him more...."
And Aleko, thinking of the dog's master who would willingly, gladly,
pay so very much more, had raced off confidently, not remembering
that he himself had no more than three five-lepta pieces on him at
this moment.
Just then he heard the clatter of the iron cage rattling in the
distance, and the deep bark of a big dog. The "boya" was coming.
Well, he must promise him the money, that was all. Surely, if he
told him that the master of the dog would pay him well, the man would
bring it up to the house himself, even if he did not trust Aleko to
take it away.
The clatter came nearer and nearer, and now Aleko could distinguish
the two-wheeled cart with its monster iron cage, between whose flat
bars dogs' heads and paws of all shapes and sizes were thrust out.
Behind the cart ran the usual following of ragged urchins who always
seem to spring up about the "boya's" route.
Aleko was grasping the bars of the cart before it came to a
stand-still. He thought he had seen something small and white at the
farthest end of the cage. And as he got round to the back there was
a shrill bark which rose above the rest, and the something small and
white sat up inside the cart and begged very piteously.
Aleko suddenly felt a wave of fury go over him.
He forgot all his pre-arranged plans; all the promises he was to
have made.
The man had stopped the cart, and was raising his arms in a prodigious
yawn. Aleko caught hold of his sleeve, and pulled him towards the
rear of the cart.
"Open it!" he cried. "Open it this minute! I want that dog! That
little white one there, with the black patch over the eye. You took
it from the Kolonaki, and it was not a stray dog. You took it while
the woman who had it was in a shop! You had no right to touch it! Give
it to me! Give it to me quickly!" and the more Solon inside the cage
heard the familiar voice, the more vigorously his little paws shook
up and down.
The man, a short, sickly-looking man, with an evil, lowering face,
dragged his sleeve away from the boy's grasp.
"Give it to you, indeed!" he shouted, "and from where have you sprung
to be giving me orders? Now clear off!"
"I tell you," persisted the boy, seeing that he had angered the man,
"I tell you it will benefit you to give that dog to me; it belongs
to a rich man, and he is so fond of it he will pay you much money
to have it returned to him; more than you can get for all your other
dogs together."
"I do not listen to such lies! You cannot cheat me!"
"I am not cheating you. Give me the dog and you will see! Or if you
do not believe me, bring him yourself! I will show you the house."
"And have I no other work to do than to be running to people's
houses?" snarled the "boya." "Those who want their dogs safe can keep
them indoors."
"I tell you," said Aleko flushing very red, "that if you do not give me
that dog you will find trouble. It belongs to Kyrios Spinotti and...."
"If it belonged to the King I would not give it!" shouted the
man. "What goes into the cart stops there!"
"Keep the dog somewhere safe, then," pleaded Aleko, "and I will bring
his master down here to pay you!"
"No," said the man, unlocking the iron door. "The dogs are going in
here; and," he added with an ugly laugh, "yours shall go in first
of all!"
Aleko seized hold of his arm.
"Keep him till noon!"
"He shall go in first, I tell you. Now, leave go!"
"Keep him just one hour!"
"You, with your hours! Clear off this minute unless you want your
face smashed!"
But these last words were the man's undoing. If he had not talked of
smashing faces, Aleko might not have thought of it, but as he stood
there, his head thrown back, his blue eyes glittering with rage,
some familiar words flashed across his mind.
"Straight out from the shoulder, Aleko! Follow your blow! Come
with it!"
All encumbrances were flung aside; newspapers were carried away by the
breeze, a shower of coffee fell on the ground from a burst paper bag,
and straight as a dart, and steady, and strong, the boy's fist flew
out from his shoulder with all the weight of the sturdy little body
behind it, and landed with crashing force on the man's chin.
The man staggered back, striking his head against the iron bars of
the cart, and went down like a tree that is felled.